That's definitely a possibility. Strange though, that there is even a
bulb in the lamp...

I can see your other point, though. I did notice that the light does
not turn on immediately, but flickers for a fraction of a second, then
turns on more gradually. Something I have not seen in a standard light
bulb. Probably the Xenon lamps.

mike

Wolfgang Pawlinetz wrote:
> mikebode wrote:
>
> >That's what I thought, but the lights do not come on.
>
> They might not be used?
>
> >There are 2 big reflectors in the headlight cluster. One of them has some
> >kind of lens, the other (the innermost one) does not. When I turn on the
> >light, only the one with the lens turns on. When I switch to Hi-beam (by
> >pushing the stalk on the steeiring wheel), the same lamp gets brighter, but
> >the other lamp stays dark. Very strange.
>
> As I understand, the bi-xenon lights use the same lamp for both low
> beam and high beam. There's a shutter mechanism being switched when
> you move the stalk so that actually the xenon light gets reflected by
> a differently shaped reflector in the back of the housing for high
> beam, throwing a larger and different pattern.
>
> The light casings you see might as well be for the non bi-xenon high
> beams. They would light up when low beam is switched off and high beam
> is switched on in a non xenon equipped car.
>
> In your car they might just not be operating, but it's cheaper to use
> the same assembly.
>
> Regards
>
> Wolfgang

 

That's definitely a possibility. Strange though, that there is even a
bulb in the lamp...

I can see your other point, though. I did notice that the light does
not turn on immediately, but flickers for a fraction of a second, then
turns on more gradually. Something I have not seen in a standard light
bulb. Probably the Xenon lamps.

mike

Wolfgang Pawlinetz wrote:
> mikebode wrote:
>
> >That's what I thought, but the lights do not come on.
>
> They might not be used?
>
> >There are 2 big reflectors in the headlight cluster. One of them has some
> >kind of lens, the other (the innermost one) does not. When I turn on the
> >light, only the one with the lens turns on. When I switch to Hi-beam (by
> >pushing the stalk on the steeiring wheel), the same lamp gets brighter, but
> >the other lamp stays dark. Very strange.
>
> As I understand, the bi-xenon lights use the same lamp for both low
> beam and high beam. There's a shutter mechanism being switched when
> you move the stalk so that actually the xenon light gets reflected by
> a differently shaped reflector in the back of the housing for high
> beam, throwing a larger and different pattern.
>
> The light casings you see might as well be for the non bi-xenon high
> beams. They would light up when low beam is switched off and high beam
> is switched on in a non xenon equipped car.
>
> In your car they might just not be operating, but it's cheaper to use
> the same assembly.
>
> Regards
>
> Wolfgang